The only time Mario fears is the level-time of 300 seconds... other than that, he's above it.

Inferior introduction to the first SMG. :(

I like it more.

This. That's also why all Zelda-timeline debates are useless. Nintendo always implements the scenario later, after the gameplay mechanics and levels have been constructed, Miyamoto said so on numerous occasions during interviews.

Actually in all seriousness I took it to be a completely different festival. in the first SMG a certain comet came every 100 years (the space station hub) and in this one there is a shooting star festival that comes once every 100 years that has nothing to do with the comet. I just take it that the mushroom kingdom loves centenial holidays and so they make up whatever crap they have to to get a national day off of work to get wasted on mushrooms and blow shit up with fire flowers.

Obviously Nintendo doesn't care in the slightest about the story, but I took the very opening to mean that the story itself is meant to be a fairy tale, one about Mario.  So Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 are simply two separate fairy tales that exist independently of one another.  And if they're fairy tales told within the Mushroom Kingdom, it could be implied that if there is a "continuity" within the Mario universe, then these never happened at all within the timeline.  But really, it doesn't matter.  If we can suspend our disbelief enough to believe an Italian plummer fights turtles and helps save talking mushrooms from an even bigger turtle, then I think a "timeline" is rather superfluous.

"I'M HUUUGGEE!!"

Looks like a reboot to me, which is fine. With the reboot, it looks like the star character fell from the Playstation universe. What else would explain the Xs and triangles?

By the way, from a story perspective, what the heck does Super Mario Bros 2 have to do with Super Mario Bros. 1?

Were is the I don't give a crap option?, seriously, it's a Mario game.

It's a different festival happening a year later